The Top 20 LIVE Games of 2008

Last year was a great year to be an Xbox 360 gamer as is evident by the quality of titles that Xbox LIVE members were playing. After a few days of number crunching, here are the top games for 2008 based on Xbox Live connectivity.

Ark Hunter, the first list is based on number of Unique Users that played those games throughout the year. The second list is based on number of Sales (full versions), hence the difference between some of the rankings in the lists.

As for the list, I’m not really surprised by anything on it. My three favourite games of the year (Burnout: Paradise, Rock Band 2 & Left 4 Dead) are all missing which sucks but there’s some great games on the list.

I don’t see how you can call this the top games of 2008 list. Considering for the count, if I only had 1 IP address the whole year – you would only need to have been connected to Live and played the game once. I am surprised there aren’t more demos on the list.

Its interesting The Demos of game titles that were going to big did better then the final product, most likely due to the fact people played the demo and thought man this game is not so good as i was hoping.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Halo 3 and COD4 remained at top 2 or 3 throughout 2009 as well =) And when COD6 is released in november, alot will play that too. And Halo 3: ODST which’ll be out in september/october probably.

Fascinating! Thanks Major.
The fact that 25% of the top-20 titles are demos should be useful metrics for publishers. I don’t think it’s a telling concern if the final retail version doesn’t show up. By definition the top-20 samples people playing while connected to Live, where you actually download the demos. I’m sure a large number of people buying and playing discs don’t bother to stay signed in all the time.

Lemon 5: The people you talk to are sorely mistaken. At least give the multiplayer a try.

THIS LIST IS BASED ON UU’s. Every time a different IP logs into one of the games, it is recorded.
The arcade list is based upon how many purchased full versions were played, where the overall list takes into account the fact that demos are played too.